


How to Love a Misfit

by orphan_account



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Companion Centric, Other, Unspecified Pairings, character centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-14
Updated: 2014-10-21
Packaged: 2018-02-13 03:08:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2134803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A companions-centric series of something not unlike spoken word poetry.</p>
<p>Update! 06/21/15: How to Love a Misfit is officially an abandoned project. I won't be doing any for the Inquisition LIs, unfortunately. The style's not fun to write anymore, I don't have any inspiration, and the blog originally linked with these on tumblr is gone anyway. I'm not deleting it because of how many people liked it, but barring miracles, it won't be updated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. How to Love a Runaway Slave (Fenris)

— **one.**  
Be prepared for him to surprise you often. He is used to walking softly, so as not to accidentally be mistaken for a person rather than furniture. This is not a habit he is likely to shed.

— **two.**  
Use his name. It may have been given to him, but it is his and his alone, and there are very few things in his life of which that is true.

— **three.**  
When the slavers come, take up your blade, but let him put his own to use as well. This is his battle, and it is for his freedom. If another fights it for him, it is meaningless. Stand beside him, not in front of him.

— **four.**  
Ask. Listen to his answer. “May I kiss you?” “Do you like this?” “What do you think?” When he answers with no, nod and change the topic. Respect boundaries. Respect opinions. His thoughts are things of endless value; treat them accordingly.

— **five.**  
When he looks to you, in the low and flickering light of the single fire in his ruined mansion, and whispers, “I am yours,” shake your head, look him in the eye, and tell him: “No. You are your own.”


	2. How to Love a Pirate Queen (Isabela)

— **one.**  
Learn to love the sea. It is an extension of her, the other half of her soul. There is no Isabela without salt spray, screaming gulls, and whipping wind. Even shipwrecked on dry land, she is its Queen.

— **two.**  
Get used to knives that appear from no where. She is creative. It’s wise to ask before you put your hands places; losing fingers is a very real possibility. 

— **three.**  
Realize now that she is not  _yours_  and she will never be. Isabela is her own, and no one will ever take that from her. Better souls than you have tried. Few of them have walked away with all their limbs intact.

— **four.**  
Just as she is no one’s to claim, she is no one’s to change. She is who she is, and who she is is not a block of clay for you to mold. Who she is is the waves, the water, the seas; ever-flowing, ever-changing but on  _her_  terms. She flows at the behest of no soul but her own.

— **five.**  
When she tells you, gold eyes gleaming and dark skin smelling of sea salt and freedom, “Come away with me,” grin, tug her closer, and ask, “Which way to the horizon, Captain?”


	3. How to Love a Bloody Daisy (Merrill)

— **one.**  
Keep well in stock of flowers and wire. Don’t ask why. It’s a Merrill thing. Although Varric will tell you it’s a Dalish thing. He’s probably lying. Probably.

— **two.**  
Yarn, too. Or maybe breadcrumbs. Or perhaps chalk would do…

— **three.**  
Trust her. She is not a child. She is in a new situation, a new place, and she is adapting. She knows what she’s doing and she knows it’s important to her. And she will do it with you or without you by her side.

— **four.**  
You are not her keeper. She had a keeper. She doesn’t need another.

— **five.**  
When she scratches her head, gives a sheepish smile, and says, “I think we’re lost,” take her hand, kiss each pale knuckle, and tell her, “Lost with you is my favorite place to be.”


	4. How to Love a Rebel Mage (Anders)

— **one.**  
Get used to feeling ribs when you hug him. Hipbones. Collarbones. Elbows. The robes hide it well, but he’s thin— _Maker_ , he is thin.

— **two.**  
Read his manifesto when he asks you to. Ask to read his manifesto even when he doesn’t ask you first. Keep a copy of it by the bed. That manifesto is everything he is and every place he’s been, and the pages are stained with his sweat and tears and bitter memories.

— **three.**  
 _Yes_ , the feathered pauldrons  _are_  important.

— **four.**  
Touch him softly. Kiss him hard. He has had enough harsh touches (and the bruises that they caused, that the high-necked Circle robes always hid so well) to last a lifetime. But he needs something to ground him, to remind him that you’re real, that you’re still here. That  _he’s_  still here.

— **five.**  
When he looks at you with eyes filled with defeat and unshed tears, and says with a shaky voice, “I’m afraid,” thread your fingers in his hair and hiss, “I love you. And no bastard in a skirt can ever take that away.”


	5. How to Love a Handsome Dwarf (Varric)

— **one.**  
Laugh at the jokes, grin and bear it through the nicknames, and eventually you’ll learn that a kiss is  _always_  the best way to get him to stop talking.

— **two.**  
Get along with the crossbow. Non-negotiable.

— **three.**  
Don’t… don’t ask about the crossbow. There’s a story behind Bianca; he’s never made that a secret. But it’s not a story he can just  _tell_. He will. When he’s ready. Give him time.

— **four.**  
Generally? Don’t be a hero. And not just in the way most people say it—though martyrdom is certainly a turn-off—but the storybook kind, too. Because he’s a storyteller, and he only tells good stories. And it’s not a good story unless the hero dies.

— **five.**  
When he heaves a tired sigh one night when you are alone and looks at you with whiskey eyes that are for once utterly sober, and wants to know, “How close are we to the ending?” pass him a sly glance and a confident smirk, and tell him, “Barely past the prologue, love.”


	6. How to Love an Exiled Prince (Sebastian)

— **one.**  
When he kneels in prayer, kneel next to him. You may not be praying with him, but at least he has you by his side.

— **two.**  
When he falls to his knees and cries in hurt and frustration, kneel next to him. You may not be hurting with him, but at least he has you by his side.

— **three.**  
He swore vows, and not just because he had to. The promises he made to himself and to the Maker are a part of him. Do not treat his faith like a flaw.

— **four.**  
Ask to hear him sing the Chant. You will never hear more devotion and joy in his voice, never see him more at peace—except perhaps for when he speaks of the person he loves.

— **five.**  
When he swears to you, with his heart in every word as always, “I will give you nothing less than a prince,” catch his calloused hands and hold them tight as you say, “Give me Sebastian. He is more.”


	7. How to Love a Royal Bastard (Alistair)

— **one.**  
He wears his heart on his sleeve. It’s all he knows to do. You will see it, plain as day, when he is hurt, when he is angry, when he is lost. Never pretend you don’t see, no matter how much  _easier_  you think it would make things. 

— **two.**  
How do you feel about cheese?

— **three.**  
He’s spent his whole life being pushed—pushed away, pushed out of sight, pushed into roles he never asked for. Don’t push him further. Pull him close to you, and hold him there as tightly as you can.

— **four.**  
Get used to sleeping beside him. He’s warm, cuddly, and he hasn’t got the best smell. It’s a bit like sleeping next to a shaved mabari. Well. Mostly shaved.

— **five.**  
When you sit with him under the stars, and he asks for the sixth time in his smallest voice, “Are you sure?” take up his hand and hold it to your chest, so he may feel how fast your heart beats, and whisper softly, “Yeah, I’m sure.”


	8. How to Love a Swamp Witch (Morrigan)

— **one.**  
If you think to conquer her, your thought shall surely cost you your life. She is of the Wilds; of untamed lands; of untold power and limitless will. She is a beast in her own right, and she is unconquerable.

— **two.**  
Keep in mind her favored form beyond her own: the spider. For the same reasons that you would not taunt the deadly widow, do not test her.

— **three.**  
She likes jewelry, though value is irrelevant. It is not opulence she wants, but a taste of the world that seems so far separated from her own.

— **four.**  
Learn to take rolled eyes and derisive remarks as shows of affection. There will be no tender vows or poetry, save for that which she whispers in the dark, when there is none but the trees to hear such weakness.

— **five.**  
When you wake early and happen to hear her whispers, reach out to her, and catch her hand as you whisper back vows and poetry of your own.


	9. How to Love a Cloistered Sister (Leliana)

— **one.**  
She enjoys telling stories. Not of her own life, not usually; but play your cards right, and maybe you will learn the stories behind her many scars—from those that mar her soft skin, to those that mar her softer heart. 

— **two.**  
Recognize that, marred though it may be, her heart is a tender thing. It aches for the dead, bleeds for the suffering. It may even beat for you.

— **three.**  
There will be dodging. There will be questions she does not want to answer. There will be questions she  _wants_  to answer, but does not know how. She has lived the life of a bard, playing Orlesian nobles as well as any lute; deception and diversion are as natural to her as breathing. Often, they are done with just as much awareness. Give her time.

— **four.**  
As you grow closer, she will grow more reluctant to rise in the mornings. She could spend years here, wrapped in the safety of your arms.

— **five.**  
When your enemies close in around you and she asks, in that playful tone that says she already knows the answer, “Have you got my back?” press a brief kiss against her jaw and pledge, “Now and always, my love.”


	10. How to Love an Uncaged Crow (Zevran)

— **one.**  
Bad jokes and worse poetry come from a place of good intention, and are often a sign of a good heart. Try to keep that in mind, if you can.

— **two.**  
Taste in verse aside, he is a smooth talker with a clever tongue. Be careful he doesn’t catch you off-guard—or does, if that’s your thing.

— **three.**  
You cannot contain him, and if you try, you will be hurting him. He has spent a lifetime flitting from cage to gilded cage with wings kept carefully clipped. Do not be the next to treat him like a pet. Be the first to leave the window open.

— **four.**  
Know that he is a pious man, in love. He will worship you with every breath. Every word spoken with the reverence of a prayer, as though you are his altar. Every touch made with the utmost care, as though you are a holy artifact. It can be easy for this to overwhelm.

— **five.**  
When he wakes in the night, walls down and hands searching frantically for you as whimpers slip loose from his throat, hold him in your arms and whisper, “I love you. You’re safe. You’re safe.”


End file.
